Raingarden Plant Selection

Raingarden Plant Selection (Updated)

Rain gardens help to remove excessive nutrients from water runoff before they enter our waterways, reducing erosion and pollution.

Rain gardens catch water from roofs and other hard surfaces and filter water through its layers of plant roots, sand and gravel before it travels through to the storm water system.

Plant selection has proven to be the most contributing factor to overall success of a raingarden. Recent research has found that the following list of plants are suitable under various conditions:

Variety	Plant Name	Evergreen	Yearly pruning required	Mostly wet raingardens	Wet & Dry raingardens
Baloskian	Feather Top ™
Carex
Casuarina	Free Fall™
Dianellas	Breeze®
	King Alfred®
	Little Jess™
	Lucia™
Juncus
Leperonia articulata	Twizzler™
Liriopes	Amethyst™
	Isabella®
	Just Right®
	Silverlawn™
	Pink Pearl™
Lomandra fluviatilis	Shara™
Lomandra hystrix	Katie Belles™
	Tropic Cascade™
Nandinas	Blush™
	Flirt™
	Obsession™
Pennisetums	Black Lea
	Cream Lea
	Nafray®
	Pennstripe™
	Purple Lea®
Turf	Empire™
	Nara™
Westringia	Grey Box™
Imperata	Yalba™
Callistemon	Macarthur™
	Better John™
	Green John™

As detailed above, you will note that Lomandra hystrix performs better when compared to other varieties, including other Lomandras. This is due to its constant evergreen characteristics, even in dry or wet conditions for most of the year.

Other Lomandras have proven to go brown and straw-like, in this case the planting has failed as it can no longer filter nor perform its purpose.

Lomandra hystrix varieties however stay evergreen, continuing to filter water, sand and gravel all year round.

Using turf within and surrounding the water garden is another option that works well. A recent USA study found that turf produces less run off than plants.

A great lawn variety for this purpose is Empire Zoysia turf, it is very low maintenance and very drought tolerant.

Ozbreed has used Empire in its trial gardens as a filter for our dry river beds and it has thrived in both wet and dry conditions.

For more information including details on this study, visit: http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/tips/2010/07142010_raingarden.html